The famous Microsoft Excel spreadsheet software allows you to “Protect a sheet” using a password, to limit the ability to modify or access other users’ formulas. If you don’t have the password for the file, you can unlock it by following this tutorial.
In the “Revision” menu of Microsoft Excel, there is a “protect sheet” feature. When enabled, users have restricted access to the file. In the event of an attempt at unauthorized modification, a window is displayed to indicate that it is necessary to remove the protection using the password.
If you need to unlock the Excel sheet but you do not have the password, it is always possible to remove the protection by editing a configuration file. For this, you must use the free and open source file compression/decompression software 7-Zip. This tool is better than WinZip in handling file changes XML contained in archives.
Make a copy of your file, for safety. Make sure that Windows Explorer displays file name extensions, by checking this option in the “View” menu. Then change the extension of the copied file from “.xlsx” to “.zipper “. Windows should display a warning that changing the extension may render the file unusable. Confirm with “yes”.
Open the newly created ZIP archive using 7-Zip and navigate to the xlworksheets directory. There you will find a file called “sheet1.xml”, which must be edited using Notepad. If you can’t open it, check in your Windows settings that this program is configured as appsdefault for the type of xml file.
The file contains a tag that determines the protection of the Excel sheet. It begins with “
Delete this paragraph and close the document. Confirm saving the modified file and updating it in the archive (7-Zip will automatically suggest it to you) before exiting 7-Zip.
Since the protective paragraph has been removed from the archive, you now need to change the file extension again. This time, replace the “.zip” extension with “.xlsx”. You can then open the document using Excel.
Editing cells is now possible. If you want to protect the Excel sheet again, go to the “Review” tab and click “Protect Sheet”. Enter the new password twice and confirm.
What you must remember
- Thanks to this tutorial, you now know how to remove password protection from an Excel sheet. Make good use of it!
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